Roscoe Brown

Dr. Roscoe Conkling Brown Jr. (March 9, 1922 – July 2, 2016) was one of the Tuskegee Airmen and a squadron commander of the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group.

Brown was born in Washington, D.C., in 1922. His mother was a teacher and his father, Roscoe C. Brown Sr. (1884–1963), was a dentist and an official in the United States Public Health Service who was born as George Brown and had changed his name to honor Roscoe Conkling, a strong supporter of the rights of African Americans during Reconstruction. His mother was the former Vivian Kemp, a teacher. He joined the U.S. Army, and graduated from the Tuskegee Flight School on March 12, 1944, as member of class 44-C-SE He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He was appointed commander in June 1945, which was after VE Day (May 8, 1945).

(L-R) Tuskegee Airmen Roscoe C. Brown, Marcellus G. Smith, and Benjamin O. Davis Brown receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush in 2007 After the war, Brown resumed his education. His doctoral dissertation at New York University

Brown became a professor at New York University and directed the NYU Institute of Afro-American Affairs (now the Institute of African American Affairs) in 1950. Brown hosted The Soul of Reason, a radio talk show with interviewees which included politicians, professional athletes, medical professionals, and contemporary artists, which aired between 1971 and 1986. Brown also hosted Black Arts (1970–71) and CUNY TV show African American Legends. in 1971 as an Associate Fellow. In 1992, Brown received an honorary doctor of humanics degree from his alma mater, Springfield College.

On March 29, 2007, Brown attended a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, where he and the other Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their service.

He was also a member and past president of the 100 Black Men of America New York Chapter. and professor of Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Brown died on July 2, 2016, at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, at the age of 94. He had resided in Riverdale in his latter years. His ashes were interred at Arlington National Cemetery on what would have been his 95th birthday, March 9, 2017. A plaza at Aqueduct Walk in the Bronx was named for him in 2019.